A man dubbed "the Swiss gigolo" by the German media was sentenced to six years in prison yesterday for defrauding Germany's richest woman of 7 million euros ($9 million) and attempting to blackmail her for tens of millions more.

Helg Scarbi -- a smooth-talking con man known as the "Swiss Gigolo" -- has been jailed for six years for cheating and blackmailing a string of super-rich lovers, including Germany's wealthiest woman. [Chinadaily.com.cn via agencies]

Helg Sgarbi (S'Gar-bee) had admitted to the Munich court that he threatened to release secretly recorded videotapes of trysts with BMW heiress Susanne Klatten, 46, unless the married woman gave him millions of euros to keep quiet

The 44-year-old also admitted convincing Klatten to give him 7 million euros ($9 million) by saying it was for the treatment of a girl left paraplegic after a car crash with Sgarbi.

The Munich state court found Sgarbi guilty of fraud and attempted blackmail.

Klatten did not attend the four-hour trial, and her attorney made no statement to the court. Her spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Sgarbi told to the court he met Klatten at a spa near Innsbruck, Austria, in July 2007 and started an affair. Using what prosecutors called a well-practiced scam, he told Klatten that he was involved in a car accident in the United States.

BMW heiress Susanne Klatten was the most prominent victim of Helg Sgarbi -- a man dubbed the "Swiss Gigalo". [Chinadaily.com.cn via agencies]

Forbes magazine listed her as the 68th richest person in the world last year, with a personal fortune of around $9.6 billion. The story has attracted vast media attention in Germany, where the Quandt family is regarded as quasi-royalty.

Sgarbi was also convicted of taking 2.4 million euros ($3 million) from three other women in similar scams. Prosecutors did not release the names of the three other victims.

"I deeply regret what has happened and apologize to the aggrieved ladies in this public hearing," Sgarbi told the court. Sgarbi's lawyer, Egon Gries, said his client would not answer any questions about where the money had gone or whether anyone had helped him.

Sgarbi had faced a possible 10-year sentence.

Sgarbi told his wealthy conquests he was a "special Swiss representative in crisis zones" according to the charges against him.

The blonde Klatten is the daughter of the late Herbert Quandt, the German industrialist who saved BMW from collapse in 1957 and built the Bavarian carmaker into a world auto power.

At first the married mother-of-three spurned Sgarbi's advances but began an affair when the smooth-talking Sgarbi turned up unexpectedly in the south of France where she was on holiday the following month.

Later in August 2007 they met in a Holiday Inn hotel in Munich - where Klatten believed she would not run the risk of bumping into any acquaintances - for an "intimate" encounter that Sgarbi secretly filmed, according to the charges.

In September they met at the same hotel and this time Sgarbi allegedly said that he needed 10 million euros because he had injured a little girl in a car crash in Florida - asking Klatten to lend him a cool seven million euros.

Klatten swallowed his story, handing over the sum in the underground garage of the Holiday Inn in a cardboard box containing 14 plastic folders each with a thousand 500-euro banknotes.

Sgarbi then told the 46-year-old to leave her husband and put into a trust fund 290 million euros to fund their new life together. Klatten baulked, and ended the relationship.

But then Sgarbi turned nasty, according to prosecutors, threatening to send compromising video footage of the two together to the press and to her husband, among others.

This time he allegedly demanded 49 million euros, which he subsequently reduced to 14 million euros, and set a deadline of Jan 15 last year. But she had long since informed the police, and Sgarbi was arrested.

According to the list of charges against him, he spun a similar line with each of his victims, saying he needed millions of euros because he had injured a child in a road accident or claiming to have video footage of their steamy encounters.

(China Daily March 10, 2009)